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Living on Another Planet: A 2112 Fantasy

The way we have been mistreating Mother Earth, plundering its precious resources, the day is not far off when we shall be making wide-eyed touristy visits to Earth II, one of the new discoveries by astronomers of planets which imitate the climatic comfort zone of our Earth. Such planets offer our species a second chance to learn to rein in its greed, behave more responsibly and live in a more sustainable fashion! Some of us may even decide to settle down there, in relative calm and repose, devoid of slogan mongering crowds, chaotic traffic conditions and garbage laden habitations.

Even if Earth II is said to be 600 light years away, a small distance by galactic standards, at our current space travel capabilities it might take us 22 million years to cover the 9.4 trillion km to Kepler-22b, the current hot favorite amongst strong contenders for the title of Earth II. Sure enough, our scientists would soon find ways and means of not only making us travel closer to the speed of light but also of extending our life spans, so a successful trip could be made. Even if this were not to come about, our future generations, born and brought up on space shuttles, could surely end up colonizing Earth II.

Since the trip would be frightfully expensive, only a collaborative effort by all the major economies of Earth would be able to pull it off. So, there will be a single planet administered by an UN-like body, and no countries at all! To put it simply, no passports, no visas and no currency exchange blues. Possibly, only an Aadhar no. to identify its habitants!

Kepler-22b is said to have a year of around 290 days. This would imply that the number of government holidays would need to be rigorously pruned down, so the official machinery may deliver some results. The number of sessions of our legislative bodies would get curtailed, providing much relief to our elected representatives who could possibly utilize the extra time for developing their constituencies in right earnest. This would imply their becoming more pro-active, bringing in policy measures designed to address such mundane issues as farmers’ suicides, etc.

The private sector, already a stickler to 24x7x365 working, would have to re-engineer its processes to ensure that the same amount of work would get done in 290 days. In other words, higher productivity norms would follow, thereby giving the original earthlings a run for their money. Management institutes advocating the mantras of higher efficiency and productivity would sprout all over. Since the executive compensation packages will be more lucrative, employees would be queuing up for promotions to a branch on Earth II. As a result, HR honchos would be breathing easy.

The weather on Kepler-22b is said to be moderate all over, so burnt out executives would no longer feel like venturing out to fancy locales on exotic vacations. With little diversity in climatic conditions at the poles and at the equator of Earth II, tour operators would shut shop and instead take up more serious vocations which would boost the economy of the entire planet. There will be no reason to take off from work, leaving managements laughing all the way to the bank.

As to hapless employees, having no avenues for leisure related expenditure, savings would multiply, resulting into funds getting ploughed back to Mother Earth, thereby resolving the crunch being experienced by most of our developed economies. Bankers and financial consultants handling inter-stellar transfer of funds would have a field day.

Another advantage of having moderate climate all over the planet would be to do away with such carbon generating gadgets as air-conditioners. Power requirements would be a fraction of what they are on Mother Earth. Earth II is said to be mostly water bound. So hydro-energy would be the mainstay of civilization. There would be no need to grapple with the cost benefit analysis of power from other sources like thermal or nuclear.

With valuable lessons learnt from over-drawing on the resources of Earth I, our future generations may adopt a more eco-friendly and sustainable style of living on Earth II. Come New Year 2112, and this could well be a real prospect. Amen!